[Paper Review] Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity

Pat Pataranutaporn, Kavin Winson+6 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|May 21, 2024

Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research5 citations

TL;DR

The study introduces Future You, an interactive AI chat with a personalized future-self and synthetic memory that reduces anxiety and increases future self-continuity in a single-session intervention.

ABSTRACT

We introduce "Future You," an interactive, brief, single-session, digital chat intervention designed to improve future self-continuity--the degree of connection an individual feels with a temporally distant future self--a characteristic that is positively related to mental health and wellbeing. Our system allows users to chat with a relatable yet AI-powered virtual version of their future selves that is tuned to their future goals and personal qualities. To make the conversation realistic, the system generates a "synthetic memory"--a unique backstory for each user--that creates a throughline between the user's present age (between 18-30) and their life at age 60. The "Future You" character also adopts the persona of an age-progressed image of the user's present self. After a brief interaction with the "Future You" character, users reported decreased anxiety, and increased future self-continuity. This is the first study successfully demonstrating the use of personalized AI-generated characters to improve users' future self-continuity and wellbeing.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate and test a brief, digital intervention to improve future self-continuity and wellbeing.
• Develop an AI-generated, personalized “Future You” that aligns with users’ goals and traits.
• Create a realistic conversational agent using a synthetic memory backstory linking present self to a 60-year future self.
• Assess whether interaction with Future You affects anxiety and negative emotions.
• Establish whether personalized AI-generated characters can improve wellbeing outcomes.

Proposed method

• Deploy a brief, single-session digital chat intervention named “Future You.”
• Generate a unique synthetic memory backstory to create a throughline from present self to age 60.
• Adopt an age-progressed persona for the user’s present self within the Future You character.
• Use a relatable AI-generated future-self to discuss future goals and qualities.
• Measure changes in anxiety and future self-continuity after the interaction.
• Present the Future You as a personalized, configurable conversational agent.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Does chatting with a personalized AI-generated future self reduce users’ anxiety after a brief interaction?
• RQ2 Does the Future You conversation increase users’ sense of continuity with their future (age 60) self?
• RQ3 Is this AI-generated, personalized intervention feasible and effective for wellbeing improvements in a single session?

Key findings

• Participants reported decreased anxiety after the Future You interaction.
• Participants reported increased future self-continuity following the conversation.
• This study demonstrates, for the first time, that personalized AI-generated characters can improve future self-continuity and wellbeing.